ESPN STAR Sports elevates Sanjay Kailash to Executive VP & Head of Sales - India

Kailash will have an expanded role with the overall responsibility of delivering revenue for various streams of the business including Advertising, Affiliate Sales, Digital Media and Event Management Group. He will continue to report directly to ESI's Managing Director, Aloke Malik.

Said Aloke Malik: "As we further scale up our business in the market with new networks and offerings, we see great potential in bringing more synergy across different revenue functions. This will allow us to explore more opportunities and develop focused propositions for our business partners. Sanjay's in-depth knowledge and cross-industry experience will help ESPN Software India further reinforce and broaden its business in the sub-continent, and I believe the organization will benefit from his contributions through this new role."

Kailash has been with the company for over 10 years, having made significant and consistent contributions to the Ad Sales function. Most recently, Kailash led the ICC Cricket World Cup Ad Sales effort and set new benchmarks in the media industry. In addition to Kailash's Ad Sales experience, he has developed a deep understanding of the various facets of this business, and forged strong relationships with clients and key associates over the years. He has been keenly involved in the Programming & Scheduling aspects of the business and contributed to the start-up of the Event Management Group in India, as well as growing the Digital Media business for the company.

T. S. Panesar will continue to head Affiliate Sales including both Cable & DTH business and Ad Sales will be led by Anup Govindan, both of whom will report to Sanjay Kailash.

ESPN STAR Sports India, has an enviable content line-up today that includes some of the best sports events across the globe, such as the top cricket rights for premium International Cricket Council events, the successful Champions League Twenty20 as well as international and domestic cricket from Cricket Australia and the England & Wales Cricket Board; Grand Slam tennis events including the season-opening Grand Slam of the Asia/Pacific in the Australian Open along with the iconic Wimbledon Championship; top quality football in Barclays Premier League; premium motorsports events in Formula 1 and MotoGP; the Golf Majors such as The Masters, US Open and The Open Championship, in addition to the highly-anticipated London 2012 Olympic Games scheduled to begin in July next year.